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I have to create a document which ends up having to be in both of the following formats:

  1. US legal
  2. A4 (European standard)

 

The document is going to be exactly the same, except for:

  • well, apparently the document size (US legal vs. A4)
  • the language

 

Basically, layout, design, graphics, etc is all the same.

Obviously, I wouldn't want to have to create two documents from scratch just because of the difference of size/format.
Plus, if I have to change a graphic, part of layout or design, I wouldn't want to have to make these corrections twice.

 

So, how do I go about setting up a "master" file, that when edited, the changes automatically reflect/update on the US legal as well the A4 document?

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Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Bliss'n Joy.

A few questions:

  1. How many pages will the document have, roughly?
  2. When you say that the language will be different, what languages are involved, and how many?
  3. What is the delivery vehicle, print or PDF? If print, where will it be printed?

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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You could try setting up a document with the size of 8.268 inches wide by 11 inches high. That is a size which will fit into each of the two paper sizes. then you can adjust the document's size after you have done the layout.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Bliss'n Joy.

A few questions:

  1. How many pages will the document have, roughly?
    When it's all said and done, probably around 8-10 pages
  2. When you say that the language will be different, what languages are involved, and how many?
    English to begin with, then German and maybe French.
  3. What is the delivery vehicle, print or PDF? If print, where will it be printed?
    PDF, for users to print out at home if desired to do so

 

 

Please see answers to your questions marked in green above.

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59 minutes ago, Bliss'n Joy said:

Please see answers to your questions marked in green above.

Thanks.

In that case, I'd have to say that @Old Bruce's suggestion is a close match to my first idea, at least to handle the page size issue.

Make a version of the document sized for A4, as that will fit completely within a Legal page. Lay it out completely, generate your PDF, and then change the size of all the spreads (using the Spread Setup dialog) to change the pages to Legal size, leaving the contents anchored to the center of the page.

That will give you bigger margins on all 4 sides, but is your simplest approach. You could also choose to rescale, but that may have a quality effect, especially if you rework the document multiple times. (I'm not sure of that, but I think it's a possibility.So I, personally, would accept the bigger margins.)

For the languages, I would try something like this. Note that this is simplified, and assuming that, for example, each page will have an image and some text.

  1. You will setup a Master Page that will supply a Picture Frame for the image, and apply that to each page.
  2. You will also supply one additional Master Page per language. On that Master Page, in a location appropriate to where the Picture Frame is on the first Master, you will place a Text Frame to hold that language's text.
  3. You will then apply the English Master Page to all the document pages, and enter the English text into the frames.
  4. Next, you will return to the English Master Page, and in the Layers panel you will hide the Text Frame.
  5. You will then apply the German Master Page to all the document pages, and enter the German text into the frames.

At that point, each page has two different languages on it, but only German is visible.

Export your German PDF.

Return to the German Master Page, and hide the Text Frame.

Return to the English Master Page, and unhide the Text Frame. Now only English is visible on each document page.

Export your English PDF.

With this approach you end up with a single .afpub document that you can switch between A4 and Legal, and separately between English and German. From it you can generate 4 different PDFs (two sizes of English, and two sizes of German).

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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You're welcome. 

You'll probably get additional suggestions from users or Serif staff when people have time to think about it. With luck some will be simpler.

I might even have some more, later. :)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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11 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

For the languages, I would try something like this.

First, please understand that I am still learning how many of Publisher's features work, so I am not sure if the following would work or even if it is worth considering.

Anyway, it occurs to me that sentences & phrases in one language will not in general be the same length in others, so it could be difficult to set the relative size & positions of text frames & images to something that works well for all languages in a single document, particularly if wrapping or pinning is involved.

Because of that, might it be simpler (or at least less complicated) to create separate .afpub documents for each language? To avoid having to replace an image in each of them if it is edited, the images could be links, so each document's image would be updated if the linked file was edited.

From what little I can tell, if APub's Preferences > General > Automatically update resources option is enabled, and the .afpub documents are open when the linked image is edited & saved in whatever app that is done in, then the .afpub documents automatically update, without having to go to the Resource Manager to do that. If the docs are not open, it seems that each item would have to be updated manually, one at a time in the Resource Manager. Is that right?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 hour ago, R C-R said:

If the docs are not open, it seems that each item would have to be updated manually, one at a time in the Resource Manager. Is that right?

Assuming I understod what you wrote: If a .afpub document is not open at the time one of the linked files is open, the behavior depends on whether you have configured Publisher to auto-update or not.

  • If you have configured Publisher to automatically update them, then when you Open the .afpub file they should all update without you needing to run the Resource Manager.
  • Otherwise, when you open the .afpub file Publisher will prompt you to run the Resource Manager.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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33 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you have configured Publisher to automatically update them, then when you Open the .afpub file they should all update without you needing to run the Resource Manager.

That's what I thought would happen, but I am not sure it does. The images/resources do appear updated in the .afpub document spreads, but there is no <modified> in the title bar, save is greyed out, & if I open the Resource Manager, each selected item has the "Update" button enabled, as if it needs to be updated manually for the updates actually to be added to the document.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 hour ago, R C-R said:

That's what I thought would happen, but I am not sure it does. The images/resources do appear updated in the .afpub document spreads, but there is no <modified> in the title bar, save is greyed out, & if I open the Resource Manager, each selected item has the "Update" button enabled, as if it needs to be updated manually for the updates actually to be added to the document.

Interesting. I'll look at that. If it's really working that way, perhaps one of us should post a bug report.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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So, if I'm understanding this correctly, with the "feature" of linked graphics (instead of embedded), I could:

  1. Create the English document in US legal format first save it as i.e. Brochure_English_US legal
  2. Then, "Save as" to save the document as i.e. Brochure_German_A4
  3. Change document format to A4
  4. Replace English text with German.

 

Now, if down the road, I have to replace a graphic with an update one, I'd have to create that graphic and save it with the same name as the one that's being replaced.
If I'd save it save it with a different name, I'd have to update the "graphic link" in each document separately, correct?

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15 minutes ago, Bliss'n Joy said:

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, with the "feature" of linked graphics (instead of embedded), I could:

  1. Create the English document in US legal format first save it as i.e. Brochure_English_US legal
  2. Then, "Save as" to save the document as i.e. Brochure_German_A4
  3. Change document format to A4
  4. Replace English text with German.

 

Now, if down the road, I have to replace a graphic with an update one, I'd have to create that graphic and save it with the same name as the one that's being replaced.
If I'd save it save it with a different name, I'd have to update the "graphic link" in each document separately, correct?

That sounds right. You would probably want to set your Preferenes to automatically update the linked graphics if they're changed.

And, of course, any actual layout changes would have to be done separately in the two documents.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

And, of course, any actual layout changes would have to be done separately in the two documents.

That was actually one of the things I was hoping to be able to avoid. Forgot about that one.

Guess it's back to the drawing board...   

Edited by Bliss'n Joy
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16 minutes ago, Bliss'n Joy said:

That was actually one of the things I was hoping to be able to avoid. Forgot about that one.

Guess it's back to the drawing board...   

That's why I structured my proposal as I did. It's complex, but keeps all the layout (as well as the graphics and text) in a single document, to be updated in one place.

You can still use linked files for the graphics, so that changing them gives you automatic updates to the main document, though.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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